Human rights watch dog Amnesty International India has urged the state government to provide remedy and reparation assistance to the families evicted to facilitate the proposed steel plant of Posco in Jagatsinghpur ditrict.
The district administration has recently completed the acquisition of 2,700 acres of land for the South Korean steel behemoth, required to the start the first phase with eight million tonne capacity.
Ever since, Posco India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Odisha government in June 2005, the project had been facing opposition over land acquisition issues.
Alleging that the authorities acquired land without engaging in genuine consultation with the affected persons or providing adequate notice or compensation, Amnesty said, they (authorities) have been violating the rights of these villagers for years.
They must now ensure that the affected families receive effective remedies, the Amnesty said in a statement.
"These evictions were unlawful and have devastated the livelihoods of thousands of people," said Shashikumar Velath, Director of Programmes at Amnesty International India.
The international advocacy group pointed out that the state government officials and the police resumed forced evictions on June 28 to acquire land for the project and the police personnel baton-charged protesters.
The Union home affairs ministry has also written to the state government recently on the latter's alleged plan to forcibly evict about 20,000 people in the district for the project. The Union ministry wrote to the state government after receiving a communication from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
"All farmers in the area had been consulted and given compensation - a one-time fixed cash payment - for land seized, and farmers had 'voluntarily' dismantled their betel vines," the Amnesty statement said, quoting Satya Kumar Mallick, Jagatsingpur collector. However, local activists and some residents said that they were not consulted or given adequate notice, and that those who refused compensation had their land seized under physical duress without their consent.
The human rights watch dog said, according to the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development based evictions and displacement, all persons threatened with or subject to forced evictions have the right to timely remedy which includes a fair hearing, access to legal counsel, legal aid, return, restitution, resettlement, rehabilitation and compensation.
Pointing out that the victims of forced evictions must have access to effective remedies and the right to reparation, Amnesty International proposed Posco to carry out a comprehensive human rights impact assessment in consultation with local communities.
